Build from the future you want, then work backward

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 8:08

   Let's talk about just how to actually go about building a call-and-be company. Say a founder's listening to this and they're just like, okay, I want to do this. What do they do? What are the steps? Where do you start? I really like to start by just imagining what is the future that you actually want? What is the world that you want to live in? What is the future of transportation? What is the future of healthcare?

2. 8:27

   What is the future that you want to live in and exist in? And for example, right now I have a wall in my house, in my office, which is my vision for what I'd like the world to look like in 2050. And so it's not necessarily that you can bring that into existence or you can will that into existence, but just to start to get clearer on what you would like that world to be like. Would you like it to be more inclusive? Would you like it to, you know, for me, one of the things I desperately want is everyone on this planet to have their basic human needs in that. You know, what are those things that you believe are so important that you would love to see exist in that future. And I think an exercise we often do is like, what is wild success for X or what is wild success for Y? And then equally, what is terrible failure for those

3. 9:11

   things? And you can apply that just to abstract thinking in different industries. You can do that, apply that for, we do that for the whole company, for different areas of the company. And I think just taking that very long timescale of 10 years and getting a really crisp idea of what you want and what you don't want. That's sort of the first step. And I think a lot of people don't spend quite enough time imagining that. And then the next part is you don't want to have this crazy big dream and then do nothing about turning into reality. You kind of want to have a ladder that goes all the way up to the moon, which is your crazy wild vision. And then you want to have rungs that just like work its way up step by step. And so you want to get that really clear picture of the future that you would like, and then just take little step after little step after little

4. 9:57

   step. And it doesn't matter how small that first step is or how seemingly inconsequential. If it is working towards that future that you want to will into existence, then you'll keep on climbing up that ladder in the right direction. I think a lot of people hearing this might feel like, I do this. Yeah, I have a vision. I know where I'm going. I have this big idea. What do you think they might be missing about just what this actually means and why they're probably not thinking big enough? They're not making the time to think like this?

5. 10:23

   I think it is easy to be discouraged by the two because they're completely two complete odds. They're completely different ends of the spectrum. So one is dreaming about the future, not that you think you can wheel into existence, just the future that you want. And then the next part is taking the tiny step that might be extremely microscopic. And it feels a little embarrassing to be like, I want a future that is, you know, whatever it might be, and then to take such a microscopic step. Because I think you often have the future in one side or don't spend much time thinking about that. You're just thinking about the bricks before you. And so I think it's also, you know, naturally we all get distracted by day to day.

6. 11:05

   It's your email, your Slack, the things that are kind of in your face, you know, the reality that lives around you every day that kind of pulls you into this moment right now. And so I think actually just making time to spend thinking about that is probably one of the most critical pieces. Like just literally dreaming like what is wild success in 10 years? What is terrible failure in 10 years is a really great place to start is just like spending some time there.

7. 11:31

   And then like even if that is so big and so vast and so wild, having that very first step is so important because then you take that little tiny first step and then the next step. And then that compounds, you know, for us, it's been compounding over a decade as we continue to work towards that same mission and vision. I want to hear how you operationalize this. I heard from one of your team members, Melissa Tan, that there's a deck like this for every project you kick off.

8. 11:57

   There's this big vision deck. Talk about what that looks like, because I think that's where people are like, OK, how do I actually do this? Talk about that deck. So we have this concept of chaos to clarity. and every idea starts in the chaos side and then you have to work all the way to the other side which is clarity and so chaos can be an idea it can be a problem it can be a philosophy or a belief and um i've got a joke that i find funny i'm not sure if you will but how do you add how do you go from chaos to clarity you can add clarity and so the idea is that like each like little step from chaos to clarity is like the very first step might be literally writing it down so rather than it being in your head, you've written it down. Then the next step might be starting to create a pitch deck on it. And the next step might be starting to refine that, turning it into some designs,

9. 12:46

   turning it into a prototype. And then as it kind of goes from chaos to clarity, it starts to become more and more real and more and more people can see it. And so just like taking those little incremental steps that adds clarity with every single step, then starts to help will it into existence rather than it being something that's completely amorphous and just stays in your head. so I think that's why you know visual communication for us is so important is because otherwise if it's just in your head no one else can see it and you can't will it into existence this makes me think about this concept of an ugly baby from the book creativity inc by I think Ed Catmull where he talks about how new ideas are this ugly baby that nobody wants to look at and deal with that and like I think he says they want to kill I don't know why you do that with an ugly baby

10. 13:27

    but there are these like very soft subtle uh fragile things and it's really important to not kill them early and give them a chance to survive and it's kind of what i'm hearing here is like have this big vision that many people would be like no wait this is completely absurd and i love this idea okay but here's like one step we could take there to see if this could be a thing yeah i completely agree and i think that's the thing is that the that very first step at the very like far end of chaos, it's very embarrassing because you're like, I have this idea that is so big and so wild.

11. 14:00

    And how the hell would I do that? I have no idea. And so it's quite a embarrassing step, actually, because you don't have mastery at that point. You don't have all the answers. In fact, you have likely none of the answers, but you just have the idea that you think would be cool. And ideally, you get the idea that would be so cool that you want to work really hard to will that into existence.